Manolo Caro’s “Elvira, I’d Give You My Life But I’m Using It,” premiering tonight at the Los Angeles Film Festival, takes the old tale of a husband who goes out for cigarettes one night and doesn’t come back and turns it into both a drolly sex farce and a psychologically imaginative look at obsession.

Cecilia Suarez mixes scary, unpredictable, shrewd and outrageous into an ultimately poignant portrait of a Mexico City mom determined to find out what her man is up to in Acapulco. You’ll laugh, you’ll choke up, you’ll repeatedly go “Holy Mother of…”

The screening is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. at Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE 14.

Bob Strauss has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.